Today, there is demand for high performance coated articles manufactured by coating two or more layers of fluid onto a continuous web. The fluids can be coated using a single layer coating process such that the fluids are coated in series with each layer being dried, cured, etc. before the next one is applied. For reasons such as efficiency and cost, it is usually more desirable to employ multilayer coating processes in which the fluids are coated simultaneously or nearly simultaneously onto the web.
Applicators used in multilayer coating processes can be designed to deliver a wide range of fluids, but this is typically not the case if the fluids are to be coated simultaneously. That is, for a given set of fluids to be coated simultaneously, the particular applicator and process conditions used in a multilayer coating process often dictate how different the fluids can be with respect to a particular property such as surface tension, viscosity, etc. The interaction between the substrate and the layer deposited closest to that substrate is also a consideration. Thus, there is a need for multilayer coating processes that are amenable to coating simultaneously fluids having properties that are very different from each other. There is also a need for multilayer coating processes that extends the types of materials that can be used with difficult to coat substrates.